Lionshead Wealth Management LLC Purchases Shares of 10,143 A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS)

Lionshead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in A. O. Smith Co. (NYSE:AOS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 10,143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $692,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AOS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith in the 4th quarter valued at $96,180,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,704,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $320,880,000 after buying an additional 995,043 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,648,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $112,467,000 after buying an additional 471,990 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of A. O. Smith by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,618,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $178,587,000 after buying an additional 417,595 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in shares of A. O. Smith in the 4th quarter valued at $19,918,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AOS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of A. O. Smith in a research report on Saturday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of A. O. Smith from $75.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of A. O. Smith from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, A. O. Smith has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.17.

A. O. Smith Trading Up 0.4%

AOS opened at $68.26 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.55, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.28. A. O. Smith Co. has a 1-year low of $58.83 and a 1-year high of $92.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $65.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.74.

A. O. Smith (NYSE:AOS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $963.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $950.56 million. A. O. Smith had a net margin of 13.98% and a return on equity of 28.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.00 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that A. O. Smith Co. will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

A. O. Smith Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. A. O. Smith’s payout ratio is presently 37.99%.

About A. O. Smith

A. O. Smith Corporation manufactures and markets residential and commercial gas and electric water heaters, boilers, heat pumps, tanks, and water treatment products in North America, China, Europe, and India. The company offers water heaters for residences, restaurants, hotels, office buildings, laundries, car washes, and small businesses; boilers for hospitals, schools, hotels, and other large commercial buildings, as well as homes, apartments, and condominiums; and water treatment products comprising point-of-entry water softeners, well water solutions, and whole-home water filtration products, and point-of-use carbon and reverse osmosis products for residences, restaurants, hotels, and offices.